kurbs's Full Review: Meade ETX-125PE (500 x 127mm) Telescope
The Meade ETX-125PE is a Maksutov Cassegrain scope that is easy to use and quite versatile.
Optical Design Catadioptrics Optical Diameter 127 mm
Finderscope Red-Dot
Focal Length 1900 mm
Max Useful Magnification x 500
Mount Type Altazimuth
A change from the old light bucket Dobsonian scopes, the Maksutov-Cassegrain is a nice mix between the Maksutov and Cassegraine styles that make for clear views and portability. It can be sued with batteries, or a 12v power source. I suggest the power source with an inverter due to battery life, especially on colder nights.
The clarity is not as good as a solid refractor, but more clear than a reflector though you have a much smaller field of vision than with the Dobsonian style scopes. It is not as wide as to see an entire field of stars, but it can focus in better and provide much clearer views of things like Saturns rings, the ice caps on Mars, or the storms on Jupiter. Moon views are spectacular.
It has a cool down time of about an hour in most cases and can be set up almost anywhere a table is around. It can be used with a tripod as well, and highly suggested if using any type of video or SLR camera to take pictures.
The Autostar controller is an amazing piece of equipment. It has literally tens of thousands of objects that once the scope is set to true North, will not only find them by aiming the scope with motors, but will track them at the same speed the Earth is moving.
You can look for comets, asteroids, nebula, star clusters, and galaxies, not to mention satellites and the International Space Station. Once this thing is aligned it is very precise as to where it points.
Ease of use is limited to ones experience with scopes and patience, but in short time you will find yourself setting the scope up and calibrating it to true North, and using the controller.
The controller has an easy to use menu and sorts out objects by classification. Want to look for the Ring Cluster? Set it and go. Want to see the Crab Nebula? Set the button and watch the scope skew itself and about 8 of ten times the object will be right in the view. The other two times it will be so close a small tap on the controller direction will find it.
The scope is portable enough to take anywhere, and much easier to use than a Dobsonian or Newtonian scope just due to the size.
Meade offers and array of eye pieces and filters that can be used from anything from short range to very long range objects with a fast yank and plop in method.
The cool thing is for only about $40.00 you can get an electronic eye piece that is basically a digital camera that fits into the scope as any eye piece would. It displays on your computer the image you are looking at and allows easy and fast pictures of what you see through the scope. It is in black and white, but that is all you see through a scope anyway due to the human eye being too fast to capture most light in stellar objects.
I have seen some great optics before, and Meade is above average for it's class, but the quality is still much lower than a high end refractor like a Zeiss, or a Russian Maksutov like Intes. But then again, you will pay much much more for the Zeiss and still not have all the options. And the 125mm lens offers a nice clear view and better stabilization than my experience with the Meade 90mm ETX scope.
This scope is great for beginners and offers a wonderful variety of accessories and options. It is portable and fun to use, and because of the Autostar controller opens up entire new worlds to us here on Earth. The field of vision is satisfying for most objects, and the optics are clear and easy to make out.
I give this scope a solid 10 for price, ease of use, portability, quality of optics, and accessory availability.
Ultra High Transmission Coating - Astronomy as easy as pushing a button - Use right out of the box - Level North automatic alignment!More at Amazon Marketplace
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